Vosges Bacon Chocolate

Bacon seems to enhance so many dishes. Just give me a crisp, salty slice of bacon and I am very happy. Breakfast, lunch, dinner or as a snack. But what about dessert? I am certainly willing to give it a try so when I saw a chocolate bar with bacon at a local store, I just had to buy it.

Vosges Haut-Chocolat is owned by Katrina Markoff, who received her training at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. She creates very exotic blends with chocolate, spices, flowers and much more. This is a small sample of some of her unique creations.

• Black Pearl Exotic Candy Bar: ginger + wasabi + black sesame seeds + dark chocolate
• Goji Exotic Candy Bar: Tibetan goji berries + pink Himalayan salt + deep milk chocolate
• Oaxaca Exotic Candy Bar: Oaxacan guajillo & pasilla chillies + Tanzanian bittersweet chocolate

Her mission statement: "The Vosges Haut-Chocolat mission is to create a luxury chocolate experience rooted in a sensory journey of bringing about awareness to indigenous cultures through the exploration of spices, herbs, roots, flowers, fruits, nuts, chocolate and the obscure. We invite you to be aware and open to the many cultures, artists and theories of the world's people, through the medium of chocolate. What better way to learn about a culture, person or object than through eating. If we can embrace the idea of trying something new such as the perplexing oddity of curry and chocolate, we just may come one step closer to bringing peace to the world through chocolate. One Love, One Chocolate."

I have tried some of her chocolate bars before and enjoyed them, especially the intriguing blend of flavors. But I had yet to try Mo's Bacon Bar ($7.50) which contains Applewood smoked bacon, Alder wood smoked salt and deep milk chocolate. The bar weighs three ounces and has 41% cacao.

The wrapper suggests that you begin by rubbing your thumb on the chocolate, releasing the bacon aromas. I tried that and the smell was unmistakably a smoky bacon combined with the sweet aroma of chocolate. It certainly appealed to me and I quickly bit into the bar, letting a piece of the chocolate sit in my mouth. As it melted, my tongue sliding over it, there was a distinct bacon flavor. In fact, there were tiny pieces of bacon inside of the chocolate. The salty bacon was a fine complement to the milky chocolate. Though you might not think bacon and chocolate can work, the saltiness of the bacon certainly enhances the chocolate. I was in heaven.

The chocolate bar lasted only two days. And it was difficult to even do that. I thoroughly enjoyed the bacon bar and I will buy more the next time I see them at the store. It also makes me think of other desserts where bacon might fit. A hot fudge sundae? Brownies? Tiramisu?

Mmmm...it will be fun to experiment.